Postdoctoral Scientist Post at Ashoka University, Haryana, India

August 9, 2024

Designation/Position- Postdoctoral Scientist Post

Ashoka University, Haryana, India invites applications for Postdoctoral Scientist Post from eligible and interested candidates

About- Open project assistant/ postdoc positions: Exploring novel variants of antimicrobial peptides of therapeutic relevance against AMR

Research/Job Area- Comparative bioinformatics, data homogenisation, and in-silico physicochemical modelling

More Opportunities:

Scientists on Direct Recruitment Basis in Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), Pune

Various Research Positions –27 November 2021: Researchersjob- Updated

Location- Ashoka University, Haryana, India

Eligibility/Qualification–

The project assistant position best suits someone with a BS-MS in Bioinformatics (experience in handling large omics datasets).
The postdoctoral position is best suited for a person with a PhD in comparative bioinformatics, data homogenisation, and in-silico physicochemical modelling (including thorough Python or R programming knowledge).
Candidates for both positions must be self-motivated, independent, and possess strong oral and written scientific communication skills. The latter is critical as the work itself will be highly collaborative, potentially engaging multiple laboratories.

Job/Position Description-

Project Profile
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have emerged as an alternative to conventional antibiotics in the face of antimicrobial resistance due to their broad-spectrum antimicrobial, antifungal, and antiviral activities and lower rates of microbial resistance evolution against them. Importantly, the multimodal antimicrobial activity of AMPs significantly reduces the evolution of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) against them. Thus, AMPs are getting integrated into clinical practices where the AMPs work individually or synergistically with other AMPs and conventional antimicrobial agents. A growing number of studies have recently implemented both empirical and computational methods to isolate novel AMP variants from extinct and extant animal taxa or obtain synthetic AMPs with predictably higher antimicrobial efficacy, followed by clinical trials. Using bioinformatics to analyse big genomic, metagenomic or proteomic datasets across species provides a more streamlined and cost-effective solution than directly adopting an empirical paradigm.

Therefore, this project aims to understand and analyse the diverse repertoire of natural and synthetic AMPs, their structural and functional characterisation, and the identification of complementary molecules for cocktails.

In this context, two positions are available for a project assistant and a postdoctoral fellow to work on a collaborative, co-supervised project in Dr Imroze Khan’s laboratory at Ashoka University. A suggested initial specific focus of the work is on identifying novel variants of AMPs implementing large language models (LLMs) and comparative bioinformatics followed by in-silico modelling of structure and function.

Duration

Both positions are expected to start around October 2024. Initially funded for 1.5 years, the postdoctoral candidate is expected to apply for national and, if appropriate, international postdoctoral fellowships.

Money

For the project assistant position: A monthly stipend of up to INR 45,000 (based on experience).
For the postdoctoral position: A monthly salary of up to INR 70,000 (based on experience).

How to Apply-

To apply, send a letter of motivation, a detailed CV, and contact details of two references to imroze.khan@ashoka.edu.in by 31st August 2024. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for an interview.